Images associated with Ebola have made the disease seem all the more terrifying. The bloodshot eyes of Ebola patients. The hemorrhagic rash Yet there is a less visible aspect of the virus that is devastating, too: The social and psychic wounds it is inflicting on the more than 3,700 children in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea who have lost at least one parent to the disease.

The loss of a mother or father is traumatic in the extreme — yet, for these children, the tragedy is being compounded by social isolation. At a time when they so desperately need comfort, contact, compassion and care, many are being shunned and ostracized for fear of contamination.